Roof structures for buildings and the like commonly include one or more trusses spanning between the building walls and to support the roof structure. Such trusses typically include upper and lower chords, and a plurality of webs extending between the chords. The webs provide structural support to reinforce the truss. The chords and webs may be made of a metallic material having any one of a number of cross-sectional shapes, such as a U-shape. The ends of the webs are secured to the upper and lower chords via a secure structural interconnection. One type of construction includes use of connector plates or the like made of a relatively thin metal. The connector plates are positioned at the ends of the webs at the upper and lower chords, and one or more self-drilling screws or the like are driven through the webs, connector plates, and upper and lower chords to securely interconnect the truss members.
The shape and size of trusses may vary substantially from one building to another depending upon on the architectural design of the building. Further, a given building may include several different truss designs to accommodate various roof contours and configurations of the building. Accordingly, roof trusses are often custom designed for a particular building, and the number of trusses having a particular configuration may be relatively small. In some cases, only one truss of a particular configuration may be required.
The assembly of roof trusses has heretofore been quite labor intensive and costly because the trusses have been manually assembled, and the screws interconnecting the truss components have been driven by workers utilizing a power tool.